1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting and tracking shooting statistics of a basketball player. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting that a basketball shot was attempted, a location of the attempted shot, and whether the shot was made.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Basketball players often desire to monitor their shooting statistics for recreation, training, or competition purposes. Basketball detecting and tracking devices have been developed for such monitoring; however, these prior art devices are complicated and expensive because they typically use laser beam techniques that require a multitude of laser beams in order to acquire the location of a basketball during play. Furthermore, these prior art devices are inaccurate because they frequently develop false statistics when objects other than basketballs break the paths of the laser beams.
Other prior art devices use accelerometers for detecting whether a basketball shot is made. These devices are also inaccurate because a ball bouncing on a basketball rim could generate false signals. Another inaccuracy in the accelerometer based detection devices is that a made shot may not be detected if the shot did not strike the rim, net, backboard, or any part of the basketball goal system.
Prior art detecting and tracking devices are also limited in that they are designed strictly for gathering shooting statistics at one site only and therefore cannot be used simultaneously by a plurality of players at different sites.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of basketball detecting and tracking devices. More particularly, the present invention provides an apparatus for detecting and tracking shooting statistics for a player that requires the use of only one location detecting device per basketball goal; senses light intensity variation and is thereby able to detect a specific signature of a basketball so as to prevent false detection of objects other than the basketballs; accurately detects whether a shot is made even if the ball bounces on the rim or does not strike the rim before passing through the net; and can connect to other similar apparatuses in order to offer competition between players at different sites.
The apparatus of the present invention broadly includes a detection device for detecting a first location at which a basketball passes through a generally horizontal detection plane as the basketball is launched, for detecting a second location at which the basketball passes through the detection plane as the basketball descends, and for generating output signals representative thereof; and a computing device coupled with and responsive to the detection device for analyzing the output signals and for generating data corresponding to the shooting statistics of the player.
In preferred forms, the detection device is a single machine vision device such as a charge coupled device that senses light intensity variation. The preferred apparatus may also include a display coupled with the computing device for displaying the shooting statistics generated by the computing device and circuitry that couples the apparatus to one or more other similar apparatuses to allow competition between players at different sites.